Fighter 12/ weapon master 25/ bard 3

This player character build (fighter 12/ weapon master 25/ bard 3) is designed to have a high attack bonus, stopping short of the highest possible only so that defense is not neglected (the three bard levels allow the armor class bonus from tumble to reach +8 and the spellcraftsaving throw bonus versus spells to reach +9).
It still suffers from low will saves, though, particularly when saving against something other than spells.

As the extra defense comes in bursts (e.g. tumble armor class jumps from +0 to +4 at level 20), this build may be better suited for starting at level 40, rather than playing through lower character levels.

If the character is permitted a sword with a +5 enhancement bonus and gear that provides a +12 bonus to strength (increasing the strength modifier by 6), the attacks per round become +63/+58/+53/+48. (This can be increased by another 1 if perform is invested in and bard song is used.)
If the character is additionally permitted to reach the +20 attack bonus cap and acquires haste, the attacks per round become +78/+73/+68/+63/+78.

Armor class

In the absence of magical enhancements, whether from items or spells, this character's armor class (AC) when wearing (mundane) full plate and a tower shield is composed of the following elements at level 40.

10: base AC

+8: full plate base AC

+3: tower shield base AC

+1: dexterity modifier

+2: armor skin

+8: tumble

32 AC

If the character is permitted items with a +5 bonus in each of the five categories (armor, deflection, dodge, natural, and shield), the AC total becomes 57.
If the character is instead permitted a +20 bonus in each category, the AC total becomes 132.

Any (non-exotic) one-handed weapon can be substituted for longsword; longsword merely provides a balance between critical multiplier and threat range. A higher critical multiplier (e.g. from a battleaxe) provides larger, yet less frequent, bursts of damage, while a larger threat range (e.g. from a scimitar) provides more frequent critical hits, but these criticals are less damaging when devastating critical does not outright kill the target.